* Alabama was impressive in the SEC championship victory over Florida, but it must be viewed with at least this much skepticism: The Gators may just be grossly overrated. They have played just one team ranked in the top 25 all season, and I won't continue to belabor the point about their nonconference schedule.

* That said, Alabama and TCU are clearly the two best teams in the country. TCU is the only team ranked in the top 10 in both total offense (No. 4) and total defense (No. 1). Alabama has beaten three teams ranked in the top 25, and has played the toughest schedule among the unbeatens. These two teams really should've been playing for the national championship.

11 comments:

PeteP
said...

Another year where we really could have used a playoff.....

Well, I am hoping for a Texas two-step this bowl season, with TCU and Texas as the only undefeateds left with TCU getting the AP title after taking Boise stay down hard (like they did to Utah and BYU).

Given that TCU is obviously the best team in Texas, at least TCU could hang a 3rd mythical national title banner....

I don't get it. Utah beat no ranked teams, has one more loss than Central Michigan, yet is ranked 16th. And their best loss was to Oregon on the 2nd game of both the season, the head coach's career, and one of their most important players' (James) first real game.

So then BYU has only a win over "No. 16" Utah and gets ranked 12th.

Now TCU gets ranked 3rd I assume because they beat BYU and Utah, and a lot of sparsely populated state schools, and if they beat Boise State (also with only one good season opening win over Oregon) they clearly deserve a title?

We treat wins and losses as if teams make no progress or regress throughout the year. It isn't the pro's where most significant performers are known quantities. In a game where freshmen are major contributors, 10 games is a huge difference. We should be considering more "what have you done for me lately" which for at least Boise State is not much.

Yes I know, they did everything that was asked of them. But I'm not going to give you a goal medal for outrunning a bunch of children, even if you do so in dominating fashion.

Cinncy has no business in front of TCU. Just look at the scoreboard. Several lucky come-from-behind wins from Cinny late in the season says o-ver-rate-ed. Had Texas fallen to Nebraska, the human polls were trending TCU and votes would've kept them above Cinncy. No way the coaches and AP would've sent them to the title game.

I am getting extremely sick of people only using comparing schedules to determine who should be ranked where. The schedules are made years in advance and teams have to hope teams in their conference are good during their golden year to be considered good enough to play in the championship. This is the problem without a playoff. The rankings should be based on only who plays the best football on offense, defense, and special teams.

I completely disagree that you should even pay much attention to total offence and total defence numbers. The stats will vary widely depending on who you played. TCU played 7 FBS teams ranked 60th or lower and one FCS and only beat two very over rated schools in Utah and BYU. Look at TCU's schedule and tell me that every single team in the BCS top 20 wouldn't be heavily favored to go 12-0 and put up great numbers doing it. Then look at TCU and tell me you honestly think they could have gone undefeated playing Cincy's, Florida's or Alabama's schedule. Cincy only played 2 FBS schools ranked 60th or lower. The truth is there are at least 20 schools that could have accomplished what TCU did, They are hugely overrated!

Hey Guru, answer this....If this years unranked USC team had played TCU's schedule, do you think they would be 12-0 right now with top 10 offensive and defensive numbers. You know the answer is yes!Wow TCU must be real great if an unranked team would most likely accomplish the same thing.

I was not saying that it should be based on stats. I was saying that voters should vote for who they think has the most complete football team on offense, defense and special teams. Who cares who they play? Team A can be a better team than Team B even if Team B played 4 ranked teams and won them all and Team A only won a game against 1 ranked team. The varying schedule of a given year doesn't determine who has the best players and who plays the best together.

There's no way USC would have gone undefeated through TCU's schedule. @Clemson, @BYU, Utah. Have you forgotten that USC lost to Washington?

TCU has played as well as anyone this season. It's not about their schedule or what conference they play in - it's about how good their team is. I think they have a good chance to win against anyone in the country, including Alabama.

You just named TCU's only three even halfway legitimate games. Clemson played horrible at the beginning of the year USC would have taken them to the wood shed. I would absolutely put money on USC over BYU or UTAH. USC beat two ranked teams this year, that's two more than Utah and BYU combined. the 24th ranked team would have gone 12-0 playing TCU's schedule period.The point is Mt. West is hugely over rated based on Utah's win last year. I bet all three Mt. West pretenders lose their bowl games this year.

Samuel Chi

The Guru is a journalist who takes time from his busy schedule to provide this important public service. And of course, the Guru is so well-rounded that he has interests beyond the gridiron and crystal ball. Check out his other adventures -- after first buckle your seat belt.